Strip chart recorders are used to record various time varying signals. For example, a strip chart recorder may be used to record atmospheric temperature, or it may be used with medical monitoring devices to record physiological data, such as the results of an electrocardiagram.
It is desirable that a strip chart recorder be capable of inclusion in any of various data acquisition systems which may have different physical configurations. The system may, for example, require that the recorder be accessible at the top of the system cabinet or at any given location on the front face, with the printed medium, referred to herein as "paper," routed in one of a number of directions. If recorders are designed specifically for these different configurations, they are essentially customized recorders. They are thus expensive to design and also to manufacture, since they each require special tooling. The user is faced with the choice of purchasing expensive, customized recorders or attempting to incorporate into a system a "standard" recorder which is not designed to mate physically with the system.